he couls tell us all he wants its not like they're spying on Lord of the Rings messageboards looking to see if anyone blabs

Actually, they are very strict with that... it only takes one barrow-downer who is also in the beta and agrees with the NDA to get me in trouble.

I can't show you any screenshots (I didn't take any anyway) and I don't think I can give you any specifics about the mechanics of the game. As mentioned before, there is no PvP but there is something like it... so if you like that aspect of the game, it's not totally missing. Some have even said that what they have going on is even better. I didn't try it myself.

The game seems to be very well developed. You get to choose your player from any of the four races of "free peoples" (Men, Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves). There are both male and female characters... unless you want a drwaf, they are all male

The creators of LoTR Online have made the game in such way that you can play by yourself for most of it... but there are some things that you'd be much better off doing as part of a fellowship (a temporary group, sort of like a short-term guild).

The quests are interesting... there is a heavy storyline behind most of them, it's not just "er... go kill 100 orcs because we don't like orcs". Having said that, there are more quests for each level than what you NEED. Which is great, if you want you can go and do every single one before moving on... or you can move on and then come back if you feel like it (although they will be much easier, obviously).

There is a crafting system in place that encourages players to work with each other as well, so while lone wolves can definitely play, there are clear benefits in working with others.

The graphics are very interesting, to me they have the right "feel"... the music was a little bit lacking at times, but I wasn't playing the finished game so I'm thinking they'll improve a bit on that before the release.

Answering Thenamir's question, I think it's very worth playing. I'm not a big fan of MMORPG's, I had some bad experiences (especially with pvp, getting constantly killed by players immensely more poweful than me... that and the sudden realization i was playing in a community that had several neo-nazis as prominent members, which was quite a shocker!) but this one feels different.

This is all I can think of right now... if you have any question ask away!